Anne Archer plays willful and sultry Patricia Emerson, whose daughter Becky is a student in an English class taught by Colin Flynn. At a home-tutoring session for Becky, Mrs. Emerson comes on to Flynn. It's an attempted seduction that really heats up when Emerson---who says she's related to the poet-essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson---begins interpreting Emily Dickinson's ""The Sea"" for him as a poem rich in sexual metaphors. Elsewhere, Winslow's basketball coach denies charges that he illegally recruited a star player---who's enamored of Harper's daughter.

Moral and ethical dilemmas surround Flynn's adulterous affair; the college recruitment of Winslow's basketball star; and the plight of a pregnant teen.

Guber's speech team star has an issue, Russell decides on a college, while mixed signals rattle Colin as his affair comes to a close.

Anxiety besets Winslow staffers, scrutinized by the mayor's spy; a teacher's sex scandal is grist for the mill of student TV-journalists; boyfriend-related tensions affect school-musical star Aisha.

Tensions surface over Ronnie's new post; Aisha's participation in the school musical and her relationship with J.T.; Harvey's required recertification; and Danny's care for his niece.

Sudden fame heartens Ronnie, credited for high exam scores posted at Winslow, yet she's also facing a romantic crisis with Zach; a student-council election tests a shy, awkward teen.

After a cheerleader is attacked, blame falls on another student's mother (Sean Young); Carmen goes head to head with a ""bad boy"" student (Milo Ventigmilia); Hansen copes with a student who says he is the son of God.

An investment banker, convicted of securities fraud, avoids jail time by agreeing to community service: teaching math at Winslow High. A sexy and eccentric woman smashes into Guber's car and then crashes her way into his life.

Harper decides to call the FBI when he learns that a student has been accessing a terrorist recruitment web site from the school library; Ronnie learns that one of her students has HIV.

Guber contends with a student who thinks he is Jesus and is using school funds to feed the homeless; Marla mistakenly books R.E.M. for a school fund-raiser.

Guber discovers the high-school drum line's freshman hazing involves physical abuse; a student-produced TV documentary about Ronnie worries her; a father is sentenced to being handcuffed to his son for a week.

An overachieving student sues the school when she has to share presidency of the honor society with a black student in a wheelchair; Marlo begins her in-vitro process.

Views on affirmative action divide the students; the teachers hope to quell the resulting tensions by debating the subject in front of the student body.

Ronnie catches a male teacher hugging a female student; Hanson worries that he may be a control freak following an incident in his Drivers' Education class; several students are caught photographing themselves nude with only words written across their bodies.